GROUP 10’s Centenary Cup dream came to a heartbreaking end at its first hurdle on Saturday in Orange, courtesy of one of the inaugural competition’s youngest sides.

In a seesawing 68-point thriller, a youthful Group 21 outfit deservedly clung on to win 36-32 at Orange’s Wade Park in a game where the lead was never greater than eight points.

Despite threatening to run away with the match at several stages over the 80 minutes, costly errors from the visitors were pounced upon by Group 10, who looked like they would go on to win when scintillating four-pointers to Lithgow centre Scott Fittler and Panthers speedster Nathan Rollinson within the space of two minutes piloted the home side to a 32-30 lead with just over 10 minutes remaining.

But Group 21 held strong, with a 73rd-minute try to Aberdeen-based prop Mark Macaulay enough to secure a brave four-point win.

Group 21 captain-coach Aaron Watts was elated with his young charges after the match.

“It’s a huge achievement to come here and win. There’s only six teams in our group and I reckon there wouldn’t be more than two guys over the age of 24 in the team,” he said.

“I thought (lock) Daniel Ritter was a standout. He is a class above this level and is a real good kid, so for him to play well here was great.

“We let them back into the game a couple of times with some silly errors. To their credit they kept coming at us but if we didn’t make some of those mistakes we probably could have won by 12 or 14 in the end.”

Group 10, who were well served by Orange duo Hayden Davis and Pat Gibson up front, will be left to contemplate what might have been, with costly errors and a high penalty count adding to a woeful day with the boot from goal kicker Todd Barrow.

The Orange Hawks centre nailed just two conversions from seven attempts, including a miss from right in front in the first half.

But Group 10 mentor Mick Rushworth was quick to deflect any criticism of Barrow’s unhappy day at the office, despite his side crossing for one more try than their opponents.

“That’s just footy. Some days they don’t go over,” he said.

“We’re all pretty disappointed at the moment.

“Our completions just killed us. We completed two out of our first eight sets to start the second half and you just can’t do that.

“We were always going to be in it - but we couldn’t quite reel them in.”

Rushworth also heaped praise on Group 21’s youngsters, saying: “I thought they were very enthusiastic. That’s not to say that our blokes weren’t but they kept coming at us all day to their credit.”

Earlier, Group 10 got off to the perfect start when Rollinson crashed over out wide in the second minute to spear the home side to a 4-nil lead.

The green and golds then dominated field possession, with Ritter (15th minute) and Singleton winger Tom Ernst (23rd) notching four-pointers, as Group 10 struggled to match Group 21’s enthusiasm in the warm conditions.

A brace of tries to Group 10 halfback Warick Colley were split by a 30th-minute four-pointer to Singleton-based back-rower Clinton Tull for Group 21, as the visitors took a 16-14 lead into half-time.

Group 10 scored four tries to the green and golds’ three in the second stanza, with the goal kicking of interchange player John Johnson proving the difference.

GROUP 21 36 (Daniel Ritter 2, Tom Ernst 2, Mark Macaulay, Clinton Tull tries; John Johnson 5, Ritter goals) def GROUP 10 32 (Nathan Rollinson 2, Warick Colley 2, Scott Fittler 2, Matt Lawson tries; Todd Barrow 2 goals).